Throwback Thursday: Deborah Lippmann Razzle Dazzle

Deborah Lippmann is a not a brand I frequent, for what I think are obvious reasons. $16-$20 on one bottle of nail polish is pretty darn exorbitant at least for me. Deborah Lippmann has become a birthday and special occasion only brand for me, when I feel like I can justify on the splurge. A past birthday treat of mine happened to be a bottle of Razzle Dazzle, and it had remained a favorite polish in my entire collection.

Razzle Dazzle 

Razzle Dazzle is a blackened raspberry jelly base with raspberry fine glitter.

Collection: All That Jazz Fall 2010

Color: You cannot go wrong with this color. This color is glitzy, rich, sexy, and beautiful. Everyone needs a color like this in their stash. Hot!

Formula: A very nice formula here. I used 2 thick coats above.

Price: This used to be $18, but DL prices have been raised and it's now $20 -gulp-. If you search this, you will find this on a few retailers for that price. If you're looking for an cheaper alternative, I'd recommend Essie Toggle on Top, which is significantly lower priced. You can find a comparison on The PolishAholic. They're not exact dupes, but close enough!

Overall: Stunningly beautiful color. I bought this way before Essie Toggle on Top was in existence, so I'm happy to have it in my collection. The price is definitely hard to swallow, so you won't offend me if you go for the Essie!

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Paint Splatters

Happy Thursday!

Way-Cool Mani Wednesday: Sparkling & Soft

One of my favorite nail looks to do are ones that have softer elements, but have something sparkly thrown in the mix. I don't think you'll ever find me with a straight up neutral or nude creme polish without some embellishment. I think the combination keeps the look clean, but far from boring. 

Here is a mani I did recently featuring soft and sparkle!

Polishes Used:

Zoya Kennedy and Deborah Lippmann Champagne Supernova (from the Starlight collection)

Manicure Description: I painted all nails with Zoya Kennedy, and followed up doing a glitter gradient on top with Deborah Lippmann Champagne Supernova. 

I don't know, but I think this is probably one of my all-time favorite manis I've done. I can't even really explain why really...I just love it!

Happy Wednesday! 

Deborah Lippmann Do The Mermaid

You can relax, this isn't a repeat of Mermaid's Eyes!

When I first saw Do The Mermaid, I knew I had to have it. Purple is one of my favorite colors and purple version of Mermaid's Dream would be perfection in my eyes. I don't frequent Deborah Lippmann as a brand in my stash. The prices are way too steep for me, so Deborah Lippmann's are usually holiday and birthday treats. I picked Do The Mermaid for my birthday, and I think it was a good purchase!

Do The Mermaid

Do The Mermaid is a soft lavender base with gold shimmer and purple glitters.

Color: This is what I'm talking about! I love a good lavender to begin with, but the addition of the glitter and shimmer really makes this very special. The balance of the color, glitter, and shimmer is  perfect. Can you imagine if this what Mermaid's Eyes looked like? I so wish that one was like this!

Formula: The formula was easy to apply. This is on the sheer side, that is my only complaint. I used 3 coats in the swatch above. 

Price: I purchased this for $19.00 from Nordstrom. Yes, this is very expensive, but personally I really like it. I would love if Revlon or Urban Outfitters tried to replicate this one like they typically do with other Deborah Lippmanns. 

Overall: I really enjoy this polish. I love the color and the glitter and shimmer make it magical for me. The formula is a bit of a downer, which will keep it from getting a perfect score for me. The same goes with the price, at $19.00, I expect perfect formula. That being said, the color can't be beat!

My Rating: 4 out of 5 Paint Splatters

Happy Friday! 

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Eyes

*Be forewarned--I'm sharing my own candid experience below.

There is nothing more infuriating than spending a lot of money on something you don't like. I've had almost 5 years of experience with nail polish. I have probably over 1,200 bottles. I know my nail polish. I know what I like. I know what's worth the money. I know what is good and what is bad. When I buy something that sucks, and throw down too much money for it, it makes me feel like a complete donkeys behind. I should of know better, and that's what makes me not like this polish even more.

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Eyes

Mermaid's Eyes is a frosty light blue with gold micro-glitter, and blue sequined glitter.

Color: This overly frosted blue has completely drowned out all the other beautiful aspects of this polish. Where is the gold micro glitter and blue sequined glitter? Oh, it's just hiding behind Mimi from The Drew Carey Show's eyeshadow. The color of this polish isn't ugly, but they ruined it by making it a frosty mess. Worst of all, I should of been smart enough to realize this based on how it looked in the bottle.

Formula: The formula on this applies nicely and smoothly. I'll give it that!

Price: I got this for $19.00 at Nordstroms. $19.00 I could of spent buying 2-3 other nail polishes, a nice dinner, personalized Mickey Mouse ears, or 2 hamsters from the pet store. I can think of countless other things I would of preferred! If I had paid $8.00 I still wouldn't have liked it, but would of been able to blow it off. $19.00 is just a hard pill to swallow.

Overall: I will say some of you will like this. I've read reviews where people like this.  If this had been like the other mermaid polishes in this collection where the base didn't overshadow the details I would of liked it too. I just don't do blue frosty messes for $19.00. I'm sorry. You lose! Good day sir!

My Rating: 0 out of 5 Paint Splatters

Happy Thursday! 

Deborah Lippmann Ray of Light

I remember seeing the Deborah Lippmann preview picture of her upcoming Spring/Summer 2012 polishes a few months ago. One of those polishes was a deep blue with what looked like copper flakies. It actually reminded me a lot of my dream polish idea I sent into RBL last year. I knew I needed it that instant, so I waiting patiently for that color to be released. Thankfully, it was released last week on Deborah Lippmann's website (I no longer see it on there today. I'm guessing they sold out?), and I snagged one.

Ray of Light

Flash indoors

 Natural Light

Ray of Light is a deep indigo jelly with pinky-copper flakies. 

When I got the bottle, in certain angles the flakies were iridescent that flashed yellow/green, however on the nail they did not. They just looked pinky-copper. This is a beautiful polish. It is really unique. I wish more polish companies would start pairing cool toned colors with copper and gold glitters, shimmers, and flakies. 

I will say I'm tad bit disappointed. In some of the bottle shots the flakies looked more like a straight up copper than this copper-pink. This is just me being picky though! I've wanted a mainstream color like this for so long! The formula also was problematic. I found it too thick. I added some thinner to it, but at $18, a problematic formula is not what I expect. Outside of that, I think this color really is a winner.

I'm assuming this will be at Nordstroms soon and restocked on the Deborah Lippmann website...so keep an eye out! I have feeling this will be a popular color too. Don't take my word for it, but I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing cheaper dupes come fall...just a thought!

Happy Wednesday!

Deborah Lippmann Razzle Dazzle

Be sure to check out and  "like" my Facebook page. I'm currently having a small giveaway on there!

I think the past few months for me nail polish-wise have been full of wishlist crushing. I've accumulated a lot of polishes that have been on my wishlist for awhile, and it's very satisfying. The only problem, is it doesn't leave much left to be desired. Once you've cancelled out your #1-#10 top lemmings/wants you get a little bored. There is something fun about the hunt for your most wanted polishes! Here is one of my lemmings I recently crushed.

Deborah Lippmann Razzle Dazzle

Razzle Dazzle is a deep raspberry jelly with dense magenta glitter.

The balance of the glitter and jelly in this is perfection. It is a  stunning rich, and sexy polish. You definitely need top coat on this because it does dry dull/matte. This looks like jewelry on your nails!

Happy Friday!

Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air

I first want to thank you all for your comments on Tuesday's post. I just finished replying to all of you. I appreciate all of your honesty, and it's nice to know that we share so many similar feelings. A majority of the comments focused on how negatively many of you were impacted by blog posts/comments from bloggers who negatively point out blogging imperfections. If any of those people are reading this, cut it out, and find something better to do. You're not fooling me, if you were so confident in your blogs, you would have no need to put down others. -Rant over-

Today, I have for you a Deborah Lippmann polish I got on my birthday a few months back. When I first saw swatches of this, I was conflicted. I really loved the glitter in this, but the sheerness of it was off putting. Well, glitter won over sheer, and I caved!

Glitter in the Air

 Glitter in the Air is a sheer white with large and small light pink and light blue glitters. This is 4-5 coats.

Glitter in the Air over Urban Outfitters Barstool

I'm on the fence if I'd wear this on its own. It looks ok, but not great. It is definitely better layered. I love the glitters in here. They're very pretty and feminine. It reminds me of those Funfetti cakes. If it wasn't my birthday, I don't know if I would of shelled out the $18 for it. $18 seems less painful when it's your birthday!

Happy Thursday!

Bottle Spam Saturday: $10+/High End Edition

This week's bottle spam consists of polishes that I have that were $10 or more in price or high end brands. I have a lot more than I thought. I must say this category definitely has some of my all time favorite polishes in it.

Be sure to vote for next week's bottle spam!

 a england Lady of the Lake, Merlin & Perceval

 Iseult, Tristam, & Avalon

 Butter London Wallis, Knees Up, & Bluey

 No More Waity Katie, Victoriana, & Big Smoke

 Nfo-oh #52, #51, & #61 (sadly a dud)

 Illamasqua Jo'mina, Phallic, & YSL Wintergreen

 RBL Under the Stars, MAC Bad Fairy, & Chanel Peridot

 Deborah Lippmann Razzle Dazzle, Across the Universe, & Glitter in the Air

 Cult Nails Iconic, Crusin' Nude, Enigmatic, Let Me Fly, & Hypnotize Me

Devious Nature, Captivated, My Kind of Cool-Aid, Quench, & Living Water

Happy Saturday!

2010 Top 20 Part 1

This was nearly impossible. It's so difficult to pick my favorite polishes this year. This is my Top 20 for this year of all time, so this includes polishes from other years. I realized after I selected my 20, I saw some other great contenders, but I had to narrow it down! Here are 10 of 20 I selected. These are in no particular order. :)

Color Club Pucci-licious

 China Glaze Grape Pop

China Glaze Strawberry Fields

China Glaze Tickle My Triangle

Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe

BB Couture Hermosa Surfer Girl

MAC Bad Fairy

Milani Gems over white

Milani Red Sparkle

OPI Catch Me In Your Net

There are my first 10. Stay tuned tomorrow for the rest!

Happy Wednesday!